The time period for candidate filings closed yesterday at 5:00PM and there are three candidates to replace Tom Kempinski as Village President following his decision to not run for re-election given family issues he cited.

All are familiar names:

- Charlie Hargan, former Village President, will run alongside Dean Wolter, current Village Trustee, and Jim Langer, former Village Trustee and current candidate as an Independent for Governor.

There will be a primary election held on February 16th to narrow the field of three to the two finalists.

Wolter was originally appointed by Kempinski to fill Kempinski's open Trustee seat upon his election to the President's chair, and Wolter then ran and was elected to a full term in that capacity. Wolter's term is not yet up and it appears that he will keep that seat while running for President.

Update-

The paragraph above drew an e-mail from Mr. Wolter with the following correction which is published verbatim: This is not an accurate statement. I was chosen for the seat by going through a application process for the vacated District 4 Trustee seat. First I filled out an application at the Village Clerk's counter at the Village Hall. Then a background check was done by the Germantown Police Department. Next I went through an interview process in front of the Village Board, each asking me questions about the Village and my knowledge of current issues and information about the Village of Germantown. Ie, size, number of parks, population, total Village budget $$, etc... At that time three people applied for the vacated seat, myself, Wyatt Wheir, Anita Hilleman. The board voted for whom they would like see fill the vacated seat. After a series of votes to bring three candidates to two, and then two candidates to one, I was chosen by the Village Board to fill the vacated Village Trustee seat for District 4. I then ran for the Village trustee seat the following year, in 2008, and won that election in April of 2008.

Langer had been a trustee and was defeated by Dan Wing in the last election following the 'dust-up' between Langer and Kempinski over campaign finance record changes that later bit Kempinski after the District Attorney took that case before a judge.

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One Contested School Board Seat...

Cari Brust, incumbent, will be challenged by Diana Kline in the race for Seat 4. Bruce Warnimont, Seat 2 and Michael Erdmann, Seat 6 are unopposed.

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As has been done in the past, this blog forum will be open to each candidate who wishes to post his/her reasons for running and his/her plans for the village/schools should he/she be successful. The candidates desiring to use this vehicle need only send an e-mail to me with their desired posting of no more than 500 words, and it will be posted in its entirety without editing.

We will follow that with a series of questions from readers for each to answer. So, readers, please submit your questions for the candidates to me by clicking on my underlined name shown above this blog. We'll need to move quickly since the primary is only six weeks away.

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